The present invention relates generally to pill dispensers, and more particularly to a pill dispensing device incorporating drive or actuator means for allowing the removal of only a single pill per actuation from the pill dispensing device.
In recent years, there has developed a growing need to provide means for establishing a closely controlled regimen in the dispensing of medications and drugs. In order to properly monitor the progress of a patient being treated with a given medication, it is necessary to establish that the patient has in fact been taking the medication as directed. There are now available on the market, to this end, numerous mechanical dispensing devices as well as many types of non-mechanical packaging techniques for the manual removal or separation of pills therefrom.
Many medications in pill or tablet form as, for example, oral contraceptives, must be taken on a regular basis over a certain period of time, and a given number of pills must be taken during this time period for the medication to be effective. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a dispenser for such medications which includes means for indexing the dispenser to correspond to the times at which the medication is to be taken. Also, it is desirable to provide an indexed dispenser which requires some positive actuation on the part of the user to dispense each pill individually at the proper time for taking it, along with a positive indication of how many pills have been taken, and how many remain to be taken.
It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide a new and improved pill dispenser.
A more specific object of the invention is to provide a new and improved pill dispenser which has indexing means for identifying individual pills according to the times at which they are to be taken.
Another object of the invention is to provide a pill dispenser in accordance with the foregoing objects which further includes means requiring positive actuation by the user to release each pill individually at the proper time for taking the pill.
Another object of the invention is to provide a dispenser in accordance with the foregoing objects which provides an indication of how many pills have been taken and how many pills remain to be taken.
Another object of this invention is to provide a pill dispenser in accordance with the foregoing objects which comprises relatively few and inexpensive parts, making its manufacture relatively simple and economical and enabling it to be discarded when empty.